Quiet Uptown
by TheBrightestNight
Summary: "There are moments that the words don't reach / There is suffering too terrible to name / You hold your child as tight as you can / And push away the unimaginable. / The moments when you're in so deep / It feels easier to just swim down..."
**If you know of and have listened to** _ **Hamilton**_ **, you know what this is.**

 **If not: Brace yourselves. (Which is code for: Major Character Death)**

 **I have no explanation for this. (** **Actually, I do: I can't draw.)**

* * *

"Adrien."

Mr. Agreste was just barely able to catch his son as he collapsed. His own knees buckled at the sight of his son: ghost white, a thin sheen of sweat covering his face, and a horrible red stain slowly eating away at his son's shirt.

"Call an ambulance," Mr. Agreste managed to his wife, not taking his eyes off Adrien. "Quickly!"

Mrs. Agreste forced herself to move—she didn't want to be away from her baby. What if he—? With shaking hands and a racing heart, she managed to break her eyes away and ran to get the phone as Mr. Agreste sunk further to the ground, cradling his son.

"…Father," Adrien managed weakly, struggling to keep his eyes open all the way. A faint smile appeared on the blond's lips. "I…made it home."

"Yes, you did, you made it home," Mr. Agreste choked, his arm tightening around his son.

"I'm…glad I made it home," Adrien continued, his voice fading in and out.

"Hush now, save your strength," Mr. Agreste said. "Save your strength." He repeated softer, more to himself than to Adrien.

Mrs. Agreste came back, phone to her ear, and knelt beside her husband, tears in her eyes. She reached out and took one of Adrien's hands. His grip was so weak…

"Mom, I'm sorry I—"

"Shh, shh," Mrs. Agreste interrupted, afraid to let him finish his sentence. He _was not_ going to—not her baby.

"Remember when we played piano?" Adrien asked, another small smile gracing his features.

Mrs. Agreste managed a smile as well and squeezed her son's hand even tighter. "Yes, I taught you piano."

"And you would always put your hands on mine?"

Mrs. Agrested nodded. "And you'd change the melody."

"I'd always change the melody," Adrien agreed with a breathy laugh. He tried to say something else but suddenly tensed, pain flashing across his features.

Mrs. Agreste removed her hand from his and instead caresses her son's face, stroking her thumb across his cheek. "Shh, shh."

Adrien leaned into her hand, his eyelids drooping more.

"Yi, er, san, si, wu, liu, qi, ba, jiu," Mrs. Agreste sang softly ascending the scale, something she and Adrien had done when he'd first started learning Chinese and piano.

Adrien echoed her as a round, in an airy whisper.

"Good." Mrs. Agreste managed through her tears in a shaky voice. She began again, this time descending the scale, "Yi, er, san, si, wu, liu, qi, ba, jiu."

Adrien's echo faded out at san.

He never finished.

"Qi, ba, jiu." Mrs. Agreste stopped stroking her son's cheek and moved her shaking hand to his chest. Her other hand dropped the phone. Her tear-filled, stricken eyes on her son. "Qi, ba—"

* * *

 **I've just been in weird place all this week. I don't usually write things like this, but I'm a bit off kilter still.**

 **Also, I think I'm going to have come to grips that I just can't draw. I'm not an artist in that way. So when I have ideas (like overlaying the first verse from "It's Quite Uptown" on panels that contain what just happened in this, um, drabble, but in drawing form) I either have to find a way to make them happen if I can't write them, and write them when I can.**

 **At this point, Gabriel isn't Hawkmoth and Adrien isn't Chat Noir. After, I imagine Gabriel finds Nooroo and the butterfly Miraculous, and then becomes Hawkmoth, seeking Ladybug's and Chat Noir's Miraculous so he can bring his son back. Meanwhile, Mrs. Agreste is given the peacock Miraculous from Master Fu to counteract the akuma attacks. Marinette is still Ladybug and fights alongside Mrs. Agreste. For some reason I feel like Master Fu wouldn't choose a Chat Noir because he feels something is wrong in the universe (at the risk of sounding cliché). I don't know…that's what my brain came up with.**

 **Obviously,** _ **Hamilton**_ **inspired almost all of this, and I did use some of the lines directly from the song, "** **Stay Alive (Reprise)"** **. The other part was inspired by this old TV show called** _ **Soap**_ **. A scene similar to this takes place in ep. 38 (ep. 14 of season 2).**

 **Mrs. Agreste is counting from 1 to 9 in Chinese. If you'd like to know how to pronounce the pinyin (and hear the melody without listening to just that one song, because** _ **Hamilton**_ **is an experience and if you're listening to it the first time, you should most definitely listen to the whole thing in order), and/or want to know what the characters look like, hit me up! Drop me a line! Call me! Beep me!** **If you want to reach me!** **I'd be happy to answer/make an audio post (on Tumblr).**

 **Last thing, for all my Never Fair friends, I'm going to work on the next (possibly final) chapter tonight. Hopefully I'll get it to you Sunday, probably late Sunday evening. No guarantees, I've got a big presentation on Monday and a bunch of little assignments I need to finish over the weekend.**

 **Thank you for reading,  
** **TheBrightestNight**


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